E3D Tool-Changer and Motion System: Beta 30 incoming!

Back in March we announced that we’ve been developing what might just be the coolest thing to hit 3D printing in a very long time, our tool-changing motion system! We opened up the opportunity for you to reserve a place in the queue and have been overwhelmed by the many hundreds of you that have expressed your interest in a project that we were unsure would be anything more than an internal E3D passion. Hopefully this blog post answers most of your questions but as always we know that you will be eager to find out more, therefore we will be hosting a live Q & A session at 5pm UK time 31st August, ask your questions here.So, without further ado, let us update you on what's been happening over these past few months.

Partial Assembly

The most significant overall change is that we’ve rearranged how the machine assembles in order that we can more easily ship it partially assembled. This means you will receive the X-Y motion system completely pre-assembled as a single unit, along with the Z axis as a separate self contained assembly.

Assembly will be vastly simplified. No tramming, aligning or tensioning of belts as this will all be done for you. Just bolt the upright extrusions to the X-Y Motion system and the base plate to those and you’re done. We’ve chosen to do this to lower the barrier to entry, reduce the likelihood of mistakes and generally improve the user experience.

Assembled X-Y Motion-System

Minor Technical Changes

The amount of technical change is modest but important and has mainly revolved around optimising the machine for manufacture and assembly. We’ve also made a number of bug-fixes and improvements.

Z axis

Earlier versions shown in some videos had 2x 12mm rails which have now been replaced with a single double wide Z axis rail. This makes Z smoother and simpler.

The stiffness of the connection between rail-carriage and bed has been improved with a machined part and more optimal bed design that is very stiff indeed.

The Z-motor is now mounted to the Z-axis extrusion with a bracket allowing us to assemble the entire Z-axis as a self-contained unit.

The Z-axis integrated leadscrew-motor has been improved with axially pre-loaded bearings to stiffen Z further and improve repeatability.

The new Z-axis takes up much less space in X, leaving more space for larger tools - this should enable direct extruders to be used instead of bowden where desired.

X-Y Motion-System

Instead of using plain flanged bearings as idlers, we’re now running on genuine Gates idlers. Where the smooth backside of the belt runs over the idler we’re using smooth idlers and where the toothed side of the belt runs over the idler, toothed idlers are used. This gives smoother more accurate motion and longer belt life.

The carbon-fibre X-member is made from an even stiffer carbon-fibre laminate.

The cantilevered idler posts are now stiffer and use larger M4 threads allowing for higher belt tensions.

Genuine Gates idler pulleys

Enhanced Carbon-Fibre X axis

New idler posts and pulleys

Tool-Changer

Tweaks in X, Y and the shape of the Z axis have provided an additional 33% more space for tools. This should give us enough space to create direct-drive extruders and generally more capable tools.

Instead of being an intrinsic part of the motion system it now neatly bolts onto it. This means that you can use the motion system without the tool-changer if you want, and lets us supply the tool-changer separately to the motion system.

Much stiffer, with higher load carrying capacity, this should also allow the design of more capable tools.

Machined construction instead of laser-cut plates, generally much more badass, stiffer, and easier to assemble.

All contact surfaces between the tool and the grabber are now hardened steel, this will give higher load carrying capacity, longer life, and more accurate coupling.

The servo we’re using is more capable with higher torque, and metal gears.

Affix your Tool-Changer here

SLA prototype of what will be the final machined aluminium Tool-Changer capture plate

Manufacturing starts now

We appreciate both your patience and support with this project, and with plenty of orders we are now committed to bringing this project to life. Forgive us for taking slightly longer than anticipated to get this blog post out, a few things held up the process, mainly the decision to go with partial assembly and increased modularity. We have now achieved design lock for the machine and as I write this blog post the orders are being placed for the first 30 machine Beta run. We anticipate having these in hand within 8 weeks.

Our plan is to first manufacture 30 machines and offer these to early adopters and trusted Beta testers. We do not anticipate having to make any substantial changes to this design as it is thoroughly design reviewed and tested. However, we think it prudent to start with a small run to ensure everything meets expectations.

Once we have verified the design we will start to order in batches of 250 machines, and we will offer these to those who have reserved machines, in the order that they have reserved them. We will ship these out on a rolling basis as they become available to us and we hope to be putting the first production run machines up for order 15 weeks from now.

Pricing

We still don’t have firm final pricing, but we’re getting closer as we start making the parts for the machines. Please take the following as indications, not final pricing:

These modular parts will be sold separately so you can order precisely what you want and need. If you just want to buy a motion system without the Tool-Changer to make a very fast precise single extrusion machine you can do that. If you want to just buy the Tool-Changing mechanism and tools to add to your own existing machine that is fine too.

Other parts which are yet to have their design and price finalised:

Duet electronics & Wiring Kit

Laser cut back & side panels

Other tools

The purchasing process

The next big question you’re probably all wondering, how am I going to purchase my tool-changer? We are of course as eager as you guys are to starting sending these out as soon as we possibly can and are working hard to bring this project to production. We will not be taking final orders for machines until we have them in house, built, tested and ready to ship. Once the machines are ready to ship, and when it comes to your place in the queue you will receive an email with instructions on how to place your order.

Can I be a Beta tester?

Yes, but spaces are limited and we will be selecting testers based on merit not queue position, we need the best quality feedback in order to bring this project to life. If you would like to volunteer as tribute to receive a beta unit from the first 30 unit production run then please fill in the following Google Form.

Questions:

While we’ve tried to answer as much as we can, we are sure that you guys will still have many more questions. We have created another Google Form for you to fill out and ask your questions, these will then be answered during a live Q & A session at 5pm UK time 31st August 2018.

Hi, your work is wonderfull, simplicity of the design: not too much useless parts, precision, repetability for the 3 axis, impressive tool changing !!! OMG !!! a lot of accessibility inside the product.
Maybe Piezo sensing on the main carriage for perfect, easy and common leveling of different tools (could be easily integrated on the carriage plates).
No endstop: stall detection I suppose :-)
Closed loop steppers on all motors for overkilling demo.
A brush to clean each tool at origin position.

Doe sthe changing tool will include the metallic brush i saw on the video from your presentation at maker fair ??

and next question is how will we deal with Z calibration for each tool ???
do we calibrate each tool and settings with G10 instruction ??
will you provide specific firmware to do that for example on touchscreen ?
because as we have to set X, Y and Z offset and same for standby temp etc...

and from what i seen only reprapfirmware support tool change macros.

so what will be handle by the firmware, handle from the slicer (what are the compatible slicers for now ? ) and handle by modify the gcode (which i do not expect at all)

Hi Julien, no it doesn't come with a brush but we will provide CAD so you can print the parts yourself. In our reference machine we use G10 with tool T0 being the datum from which all others are measured. Depending on what electronics you install, and we recommend the Duet2 and Duex5, you will need to configure the way the printer operates yourself. We intend to have a reference implementation for you based around the Duet2. Please see the first blog post for calibration patterns https://e3d-online.com/blog/2018/03/21/tool-changer-q/

Hi Raz, can you and your team please fill out the following application if you would like to be beta testers https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfp_xKnkDjb3lspC70QFpIIsfAftcBi9W6aYRJSUvcaVFL1ZQ/viewform

I have a couple of your Big Box heated beds and plates and very satisfied with them. Are they still available? I did paint the underside of the plate with high temp white so the first layer is more visible.
Ed

Hi Ed, unfortunately due to not having a full time electrical engineer we had to put the development of these beds on hold whilst we were looking for someone, however we have recently employed someone and they will be working on these ASAP.

I wonder if you guys ever considered putting the Z Axis stepper motor at the top of the build area rather then at the bottom. Carl Raffle did it this way in the CR1 beta and it works quite well. It could buy you a bit more Z axis area.

Wow, really excited about this design. you guys have a real passion and elegance for machine design! Your energy and excitement is a great inspiration!

Is the X beam stiff enough in torsion? I realize the forces are mainly planar if the tool and carriage mass is in the same plane as the driving belts, but surely with the array of tooling you are planning for, the center of mass may be more above or below causing torsion on the beam during accel/decel front to back. I'm guessing the natural damping of the carbon fibre will help with vibrations in this mode as well. I'm curious if you considered this during your FEA.

Hi Jon, yes this has been considered and the X beam is pretty damn stiff! Like you say, there will of course still be some give, in all directions, but we are very happy with the work that we have done to drastically reduce this.

I was initially working on my own tool changing system for an open source CoreXY system, that utilised a servo to lock separate carriages in place. I gave up on my work on seeing the e3d developments, anticipating that it would be better to be involved in a system that would seek to be the standard for tool changing. I still want to incorporate mounting for e3d's tool changing into common CoreXY printer designs like the D-Bot, and have gone to some lengths to provide for this; such as ensuring my designs have space for your mechanisms.

I've also contributed designs to fix issues with e3d products such as the Titan filament guide and idler lever, and aim to continue to do the same in future. If I had access to the promised open source designs of the locking mechanism, I believe I could reproduce it myself, and incorporate these works into both what I'm building, and what I will do in the future.

Nice system, seems to be perfect, which plans you have about direct drive coupling. I by myself working on a similar system driven on steep threaded rods to provide more power for watercooled direct drive coupling and I am at phase to Test different docking methods you already have done like power magnets e.g.
Our team would be happy to beta test your maschine also as the new prusa mm system to find the differences.

If you buy just the tool changer portion, what exactly do you get? Everything that attaches to the bearing, Or is what attaches to the bearing still part of the motion system and the rest of the tool changer bolts to the aluminum housing?

What kind of bearing is it, what is the size of the rail? Just trying to get an idea of what I would need to prepare my bigbox or other printer for the tool changer.

This looks like a well designed beast but not working well with flexible filaments is giving me pause. Could e3d provide a little insight as to what the complications are with a direct-drive extruder that pushed the first iteration towards bowden(s)? Ie., What problems would an end-user run into trying to mount a titan/etc. on a tool changer pallet?

Hi Josh, the initial design was done Bowden as the mass of the toolhead is lower and therefore easier as the tool grabbing mechanisms doesn't need to be able to handle as much mass. Currently we are refining the tool changing mechanism and it will very shortly have direct tools. Thanks.

Hey e3d! I'm in the tool changer line, jumped in as soon as I saw the MRRF talk. I know the original projected date in this article had the first batches shipping around now. I'm not worried about timeline slip as in projects like this it's always and estimate and I'd rather receive and well tested mature piece of equipment.

Just wanted to know if there's an updated timeline for the first few larger scale batches of the printers coming out so I can plan for the spend. Would appreciate any info even if it's wait 8 weeks and we'll give you a real update.

Thanks for your message and also your support from the very start! We are still in Beta phase with the first 30 machines being shipped within the next few weeks. We are unable to give any timescales at the moment I'm afraid but when we have definite timelines we will get in contact with you guys right away.

Thanks for the update! That's all I was looking for, good to hear the beta units are getting ready to go out, I saw Tom's recent update at E3D and the final revision looks SLICK. I'm excited to see the results of the beta printers, keep doing what you do best.

The TC printer head is not balanced, there would be little point as the tools offset the weight anyway. We are planning on having many different tools and with all of these it would not be possible to balance and would just end up adding unnecessary weight.

We are well underway with Beta testing now, the last batch of machines are being sent this coming Tuesday (22nd Jan). We will also be releasing a blog update post within the next days. In the mean time feel free to follow our Twitter account @E3DOnline as we are posting regularly on there. Thanks, E3D

Hi,
I am wondering if the tool changer system will be capable of high temp materials using your high temp bed and water cooled aero? Also will an upgrade be possible to allow for a 300mm x 300mm bed?
Thanks